battle

battle¹

—battler, n.

/bat"l/, n., v., battled, battling.

n.

1. a hostile encounter or engagement between opposing military forces: the battle of Waterloo.

2. participation in such hostile encounters or engagements: wounds received in battle.

3. a fight between two persons or animals: ordering a trial by battle to settle the dispute.

4. any conflict or struggle: a battle for control of the Senate.

5. Archaic. a battalion.

6. give or do battle, to enter into conflict; fight: He was ready to do battle for his beliefs.

v.i.

7. to engage in battle: ready to battle with the enemy.

8. to work very hard or struggle; strive: to battle for freedom.

v.t.

9. to fight (a person, army, cause, etc.): We battled strong winds and heavy rains in our small boat.

10. to force or accomplish by fighting, struggling, etc.: He battled his way to the top of his profession.

[1250-1300; ME bataile < OF < VL *battalia for LL battualia (neut. pl.) gladiatorial exercises, equiv. to battu(ere) to strike (see BATE²) + -alia, neut. pl. of -ALIS -AL²]

Syn. 1. contest, conflict, war. BATTLE, ACTION, SKIRMISH mean a conflict between organized armed forces. A BATTLE is a prolonged and general conflict pursued to a definite decision: the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. A SKIRMISH is a slight engagement, often on the periphery of an area of battle: several minor skirmishes. An ACTION can be a battle or a skirmish or can refer to actual fighting or combat: a major military action; action along the border; He saw action in the campaign. 2. warfare, combat, fighting. 6. conflict. 8. contest.

battle²

/bat"l/, v.t., battled, battling. Archaic.

to furnish (a building or wall) with battlements; crenelate.

[1300-50; ME batailen < MF bataillier to provide with batailles. See BATTLEMENT]

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(as used in expressions)

Actium Battle of

Adrianople Battle of

Battle of Hadrianopolis

Adwa Battle of

Battle of Adowa

Aegospotami Battle of

Agincourt Battle of

Antietam Battle of

Atlantic Battle of the

Austerlitz Battle of

Balaklava Battle of

Bannockburn Battle of

Blenheim Battle of

Borodino Battle of

Bosworth Field Battle of

Bouvines Battle of

Boyne Battle of the

Brandywine Battle of the

Britain Battle of

Buena Vista Battle of

Bulge Battle of the

Bunker Hill Battle of

Cannae Battle of

Caporetto Battle of

Carrhae Battle of

Cerro Gordo Battle of

Chaeronea Battle of

Chancellorsville Battle of

Châteauguay Battle of

Chattanooga Battle of

Chickamauga Battle of

Chippewa Battle of

Contreras Battle of

Copenhagen Battle of

Crécy Battle of

Culloden Battle of

Dien Bien Phu Battle of

Dorylaeum Battle of

Fallen Timbers Battle of

Flodden Battle of

Fredericksburg Battle of

Friedland Battle of

Gaugamela Battle of

Germantown Battle of

Gettysburg Battle of

Granicus Battle of the

Hastings Battle of

Ipsus Battle of

Issus Battle of

Jutland Battle of

Karbala' Battle of

Kings Mountain Battle of

Königgrätz Battle of

Battle of Sadowa

Kosovo Battle of

Kursk Battle of

Las Navas de Tolosa Battle of

Battle of Al Uqab

Lechfeld Battle of

Leipzig Battle of

Battle of the Nations

Lepanto Battle of

Leyte Gulf Battle of

Little Bighorn Battle of the

Magenta Battle of

Maldon Battle of

Manila Bay Battle of

Manzikert Battle of

Marathon Battle of

Marengo Battle of

Marne First Battle of the

Marne Second Battle of the

Marston Moor Battle of

Midway Battle of

Mobile Bay Battle of

Monitor and Merrimack Battle of the

Munda Battle of

Naseby Battle of

Navarino Battle of

Nemea Battle of

New Orleans Battle of

Nicopolis Battle of

Nile Battle of the

Novara Battle of

Pharsalus Battle of

Philippine Sea Battle of the

Plataea Battle of

Poitiers Battle of

Poltava Battle of

Pydna Battle of

Qadisiyyah Battle of

Quebec Battle of

Roncesvalles Battle of

Battle of Roncevaux

Salamis Battle of

Sedan Battle of

Shiloh Battle of

Solferino Battle of

Somme Battle of the

Stalingrad Battle of

Tannenberg Battle of

Thames Battle of the

Thapsus Battle of

Thermopylae Battle of

Ticonderoga Battle of

Tippecanoe Battle of

Tours/Poitiers Battle of

Trafalgar Battle of

Tsushima Battle of

Ulm Battle of

Varna Battle of

Verdun Battle of

Wagram Battle of

Waterloo Battle of

White Mountain Battle of

Wilderness Battle of the

Zama Battle of

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▪ England, United Kingdom

      town (parish), Rother district, administrative county of East Sussex, historic county of Sussex, England, just inland from Hastings. A ridge to the southeast, called Senlac, was the site of the famous battle in which William I the Conqueror (William I) defeated the English in 1066. Before the battle William vowed to build an abbey on the spot if victorious, and in 1094 its church was consecrated, with an altar standing where the English king Harold II fell. The great gateway, built in 1338, survives alongside the town, but after the Reformation the church was destroyed and the abbey converted into a mansion that is now occupied by a school. Pop. (2001) 6,048.

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